Latest news:
Feb.08, 2010: Force plate driver supports Vista/Windows 7 32bit and 64bit. Background
The key to the force plate system is the measurement of the movement of the center of
gravity (COG) in the golf swing along with video recording of golfer's full swing. Research
has shown that there are good COG patterns and bad COG patterns. By learning to identify
the good from the bad, an instructor can help a student learn the golf swing in a more
effective and efficient manner. Other systems out there in the market are either just COG
measurement system or just video only system. Force plate combines both data and video
capturing in a synchronized way, it detects and gives notification when weight center is
within certain zones or when certain body part in video is within certain predefined regions.

The Hardware
The following components were incorporated into the system design:•An aluminum plate or glasstop
plate with 4-8 load cells•Force plate USB DAQ from HYTEK Automation, Inc.•Logitech USB webcam or DV camcorder•12V power supply

The Software
The force plate system works with commercial cameras such as USB webcam or DV camcorder. Below highlights some of software
features that are implemented in Force plate system.

Data and Video synchronized Capturing
Measure force plate's load cells' data for every video frame that passing by and record data and video files in a synchronized way.

Data and Video synchronized Playback
This system is able to step through each video frame and read out the saved matching load cells' force data. This makes the
synchronized playback an easy task.

Thumbnail Creating
This force plate system is able to get each video frames's image data and create a thumbnail's view of image sequences.

Video Object Detecting
This force plate system is able to pre-teach a body object’s color spectrum, this will be used later to track body object. It is able to pre-
define some regions and zone in square shape. If the tracked object is falling within these zones, system will beep or making a pre-
recorded sounds. The object tracking parameters and warning sound files are configurable and saved in setup file.

Multiple Camera Capturing and Video Blending
It is very useful to utilizing multiple cameras to capture different angle of body movement during the full swing. The video blending
functions allow capturing and playback of multiple video streams at the same time. The location of each video stream and transparency
are adjustable. This makes video side by side compare or video overlay streams an easy task.

Force Data Capturing And Analyzing
By using force plate USB DAQ from HYTEK Automation, Inc., load cells' data are measured. Center of gravity (COG) is calculated and
displayed in real time in a "yellow snake" shape in graph. The percentage of forward, backward, left and right forces are also calculated
and displayed in numbers and bar graph.

SUMMARY
This force plate system makes golfer's life easier to understand the weight transfer in data and video form. The same system can also
be used for baseball training or physical therapy.